Mike Bloomberg under immediate attack at Vegas Democrats' debate
From the opening bell, Mike Bloomberg faced fierce attacks from his Democratic rivals over race and gender at Wednesday night’s high-stakes debate in Las Vegas as the former New York City mayor faced off on the debate stage for the first time.
The 78-year-old former Republican was making his debate debut as one of the Democrats’ strongest six White House hopefuls — as determined by national polls — while the party’s moderate wing struggles to unify behind an alternative to polarizing progressive Bernie Sanders.
It was a raucous affair just three days before Nevada voters decide the third contest of the Democratic Party’s turbulent 2020 primary
Sanders lashed out at Bloomberg’s policing policies as New York City mayor that he said targeted “African-American and Latinos in an outrageous way.”
Elizabeth Warren called Bloomberg “a billionaire who calls people fat broads and horse faced lesbians,” and former vice-president Joe Biden charged that Bloomberg’s “stop-and-frisk” policy ended up “throwing five million black men up against the wall.”
Bloomberg defended himself on all counts and took a shot at Sanders’ electability: “I don’t think there’s any chance of the senator beating Donald Trump.”
Bloomberg won’t be on the ballot Saturday, yet he was expecting to face intense scrutiny on national television for the first time, having faced relatively little in his surprisingly swift rise from nonpartisan megadonor to top-tier contender.
With just six candidates in the debate, the smallest group to date in a field that initially featured 20 on stage, the stakes were high for everyone.
Buttigieg assailed both Bloomberg and Sanders, warning that one threatened to “burn down” the Democratic Party and the other was trying to buy it.
He called them “the two most polarizing figures on this stage.”
Bloomberg is avoiding the earliest primary states, focusing instead on campaigning in the 14 states that vote in the March 3 Super Tuesday primaries. And his massive campaign — with more than 2,000 staffers nationwide and more than $400 million US spent on ads already — has given him enough of a boost to win high-profile endorsements and double-digit support in the polls.